Matt is a close personal friend of mine, and I had the pleasure of talking with him about the many modifications he's recently done to his YJ.  In a nutshell: Dana 60's, an Atlas II, Alcan Springs, and some big Interco's all happened at once!  Below you will find the interview, with pictures of the build-up to the right.  At the bottom you will find specifications for Matt's Jeep.  After reading the article, feel free to click the "Discuss" button to share your thoughts with us!  Enjoy!

Jeepaholics Anonymous: So Matt, what's the first vehicle you ever took offroad...even if it was just flat dirt...and what went through your mind? Matt Osburn: The first vehicle I ever took off road was affectionately known as LaBomba! A Plymouth Fury. I don't remember what year, but it was old in 1976 when I got it. My first 4x4 was a brand new 1986 Isuzu Trooper. As soon as we got it we took it to the beach at Fiesta Island and pulled down into the sand, cause I could. I didn't know if I should be in 4hi or 4low, or what. I had lots of fun trips in that truck, on and off the pavement. It didn't cost me an arm and a leg cause it was before the SUV craze hit. Had plenty of room for the wife, kids, dogs and luggage. I wanted a Jeep the whole time I owned it. No shit. JA: A Fury?!  Wow...runnin' the boat ashore, huh?  Wonder what the fascination is with 4-wheelin' in a non-4x4 vehicle... My first was an Omni! We beat the hell out of that poor thing. Only thing we ever did was dent the oil pan once, go figure. If you had to list your top three reasons to go 4-wheeling, in order, what would they be? MO: Friends. Not just any friends. The kind of friends you'll find willing to stand up against the elements and have a blast doing it. The kind of friends where you can look and feel like a grub worm and they not only don't care, they don't even notice. With most of you people out there on the trails, you don't even have to earn your friendship, as long as you don't abuse it, you get it automatically. I need more reasons than that? Ok, getting away to some really cool places and driving the Jeep is a huge thrill too! JA: I see you posting quite a bit on mailing lists and message boards on the internet, taking particular care in helping newbies find the right paths... Did you get beat-up by big Jeepers when you were a little Jeeper or are you just a nice guy? MO: The first forum I ever found was Jeep-L. I've been a member of that just about since I got the Jeep in September of 94. I was very intimidated about posting then. Not just because I was worried about being wrong, but that I might make language errors and people would think I was stupid. But over the years I've obviously gotten over my fears of participating in these forums. Now they tell me I talk too much! I try to help where I can. Telling some fellow how to do something easier, or about some cool new doohicky to make his Jeep better is just be'n courteous. I'm sure he'd do it for me. I learned a lot on these forums and I keep getting new bits of information all the time. I'm just returning the favor where I can. I think our sport is so much richer because of the internet. You're not the only Jeepaholic and these forums give guys like me a place to talk about what we like talking about most. It's an obsession. One I'm glad to have. Hell, most the fellows I ride with I met on the internet and they're all just as sick as me! JA: I had a girl email me the other day who was doing a report for High School on how Jeep's have influenced people over the years. One of her questions to me was, "Do you think Jeep owners are a certain type of people? If so, do these people have specific characteristics?" Without posting my own epistle here, I'll summarize by saying that so far you've been hitting it right on the nose! Usually rugged types, love nature and their surroundings, are fun spirited, have the ability to smell the roses, don't mind not showering for days at a time. The internet has brought many of us together, not just in the Jeep world...but all other interest groups. It truly is a small world these days...  When you first bought your Jeep, did you have an idea as to just how far you'd take your hobby...or has something along the way guided you towards this latest setup? MO: Oh man! My wife is likely to read this, so no chance I'm gonna be able to feed you a line of bull that this was all planned. This might take a little, but I'm gonna tell ya a story! Lucky you! When I had that Trooper, I always had aspirations of "fixing it up." I never really had the money to do it then raising the family and all. I tinted the windows, put a CB in it and put on some new rims and those whopping 30" all-terrains. Like I said earlier, the whole time I had that Trooper, I wanted a Jeep. But with a family and trips to be made, there's just no room in a Jeep. So I waited till the kids weren't hanging around with Dad much anymore. My son was still attached at the hip on hunting and fishing trips, but that was just him and me on those trips. So it was time. My wife and I hit all the dealerships and used car lots one day looking for a used Jeep. What amazed me was how well Jeeps hold their value. That's a good thing for a seller, but I was a buyer. I saw this forest green Jeep with a tan top on the road once. I remember thinking how I'd love to find a used one with that color combo for sale. Well, while we were at one of the dealerships, there was this brand new forest green (to me, Moss Green Pearl Coat to them) 1995 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Edition. I had to look closer. I opened the door and the new car smell was euphoric. I was totally taken back by the fact that this Jeep had carpet and get this, a dome light! I did love it. But when the salesman walked up behind the Jeep and said "What can I do for you today?" With both Jeep doors open and our heads inside, I looked thru to the passenger side where my wife was and whispered, "Let's get out of here before he talks me into something I don't want to pay for!" All that salesdude got was assholes and elbows. The next day, my wife took off in the Trooper to "run some errands." When she returned, she came back in that Jeep I drooled over the previous day. She knew I loved it and wanted me to have it. Someone, her, a neighbor, I don't remember, asked "So what ya gonna do to it?" And one of my most ignorant sentences I have ever spoken (as it turns out) came out of my mouth. "It's a Jeep, I like it just the way it is!" Hey, I didn't know! Now my wife and I have two Jeeps. One of them is very built with plans for more building. My wife sells Jeeps at Midway Jeep for a living (See Ms. Vicky's Jeep Page). My son drives a 95 YJ that's soon to be SOA and locked front and rear too. No, I had no clue how far it was gonna go when I got that Jeep. JA: Tinted windows...new rims...you were on "slam-suspicion" there for a minute! <phew> Seriously, that's a great story! Ever sit down and figure out how much you've put into it since then? Personally, I refuse to do that. MO: It's an obscene amount. I used to keep track. When I got to $10K over the cost of the Jeep itself, I was sorta proud of myself. Now, I don't really like to talk about how much some of this has cost me. It's embarrassing. JA: So your Jeep is named Greengo. What's that mean to you? MO: It's a racist thing. All of my friends have red Jeeps. Well, lots of them. And ok, maybe they're not my friends, but they let me stand by them at the fire. Anyway, I'd like to tell you the in depth version of how this name came about, but it's not very PC and I don't want to make you look bad Al! JA: <laughing> Had to offer it up... <sigh of relief> If you could do anything...today...just for one day only, what would it be? MO: This isn't a sex question right? Then, fly a jet. JA: Yeah? Where to? MO: Up there... JA: So, Dana 60's front AND rear...think that's a bit overkill? MO: I sure as hell hope so! JA: Tell me about the rest of your setup and how you like it. MO: Well, get'n those monster axles under there adds to confidence but it doesn't add multitudes of performance. Now the Atlas 4.3 reduction, that really helped. Sure is nice going slow. I've been wheeling some tough trails with a 40:1 crawl and stock axles for a long time. It was tough to enjoy sometimes because you really have to tip toe to keep your rig in one piece. Not that I won't still tip toe, but I sure can relax a bit now with some beef and an 85:1 crawl. JA: You done? MO: Since you asked, there is one thing I'd like to get off my chest. I really believe the Dana 35 gets a bad rap. Besides my own never ever broken Dana 35, I wheel with a bunch of YJs and not one ever broke. All of us started off on that stocker Dana 35. And I've witnessed some pretty abusive driving on that axle. Even when I was sure the poor sap was gonna break, it held up. I got over 100,000 miles on that stock axle. I just want to let those fellows out there wondering if they can hit the trails with their stock axles that they can go out and have a good time. Conquer tough trails and come home in one piece. Now that's not an endorsement for going out without spare shafts. At least amongst your group somewhere. But don't assume you're gonna be using them. Maybe I was lucky. Maybe it was always thinking about the equipment. I dunno, but they stayed in one piece. JA: <grin> Let me rephrase, "You done with your Jeep?" MO: Oh, sorry. Hell no I ain't done. And even if I was done, I know better than to say it. I need a V8 and an NV4500. I need corner guards. I need to shorten my nerfs. I need to replace the flares. I gotta fix my exhaust after that little episode on El Hill. One of these days I'm gonna replace that windshield. I gotta do something about my center console. I need to do that rear main seal. The clutch could stand replacing. I'd like to put in some decent seats. I gotta list around here somewhere. JA: What's the dumbest thing you've done in your Jeep. MO: Well, besides the dumb comment I made when I first got it, and almost rolling it on El Hill "twice", and bashing the fender up in the trees on Bronco Peak when I could have easily backed up, and ever letting Bud spot me when he's got a camera, and ... well the dumbest? That would have to be right after I got the new axles and tcase. My first test ride was at Table Mountain in Jacumba. Fairly easy trail. Little bit of rockcrawling but mostly just hills and washes. I wanted something easy to get re-aquainted. Well, one thing about a 4to1 I learned is you don't just have a granny gear like the NP435 and NV4500 guys. All your gears, 1 thru 5, are now granny gears. Which makes keeping up when the pace picks up on the easy stuff kinda hard. Well we hit this wash and the other two fellows tore out. I attempted to keep up but in 5th gear my top speed winding the 4.0 up is only about 15mph. So I decided 4hi would do the trick. Now I saw that rock in the wash. I slowed down and looked down to figure out how to get this new tcase into 4hi. Once I got it into 4hi, I looked up, saw a clear path and totally forgot about that boulder in the wash. BANG! The Jeep went over it and I stopped to see what I had done. Lucky for me, Mike Duncan (www.fourxdoctor.com) insisted I put his diff protectors on my new Dana 60s. Well if they hadn't been there, I would have had a big giant dent (maybe worse) in my brand new axle and I didn't even have the thing 24hours yet. So I'd say hitting a lone rock in a wash had to be one of the dumbest things I've done in the Jeep. JA: Tell me about the best time you've had wheelin'... MO: This is tough. It really seems like the last time is always the best time. They just keep get'n better. I'd have to say the time I know my wife enjoyed the whole thing the most was our second trip to the Rubicon in 98. And you know how it is, if the wife is happy... JA: What's your favorite trail? MO: Hands down the Rubicon. The Dusy-Ershim is real close. You're rockcrawling more there. But it's kind of one of those things where you can't see the forest thru the trees. But don't get me wrong, it's beautiful and I'd love to do it again and again. My favorite event is the TDS Desert Safari. That's so much fun I damn near feel guilty. JA: Matt, as always...talkin' with you is a pleasure!